Update

In recent months ominous ads about prescription drugs have flooded the TV airwaves - and Congress is paying attention: House and Senate members have launched nine bills that take aim at pharmacy benefit managers.

Opioid manufacturers and distributors are paying more than $54 billion in restitution to settle lawsuits about their role in the overdose epidemic, with little oversight on how the money is spent.

As some parts of the CAA come into clearer focus, other provisions will continue to be worked out in coming years.

Health insurers and medical providers are battling over who should supply high-cost infusion drugs for patients, while some insurers are bypassing hospital pharmacies and physician offices and instead sending more complex drugs through third-party pharmacies.

A recent Pennsylvania ruling striking down Tower Health's tax-exempt status sent a warning shot to the roughly 3,000 nongovernment tax-exempt hospitals nationwide, as states consider legislation to better define charity care.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, chair of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, won't hold a hearing on nomination of Dr. Monica Bertagnolli for National Institutes of Health director until Biden offers a drug price plan.

Los Angeles County was allocated $6.3 million from Janssen, the pharmaceutical subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, while Knox County, a rural Kentucky county in Appalachia — considered ground zero of the crisis — received $45,395.

President Biden's new SAVE plan is an income-driven repayment plan that will cut borrower's monthly payments in half, but it could still face legal attacks as it relies on the Higher Education Act, which governs financial assistance.